UTA In The News — Friday, May 1, 2015

Students in UT Arlington’s Emerging Scholars Program, a collaboration between the College of Engineering and Department of Mathematics, analyzed a website operated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas for a KXAS/NBC 5 investigation into hundreds of electricity rate plans that promise to save consumers money.

WFAA/Channel 8 interviewed Elten Briggs, a UT Arlington associate professor of marketing, about JCPenney’s decision to sell the Apple watch in its stores. Briggs isn't convinced that a partnership with a higher end brand is the right move for a retailer known to attract bargain shoppers. “I thought that this was a poor fit,” he said. “I can see where they may receive some image benefits - but as far as leading to a lot of new sales – I don’t really see it happening.”

Roland G. Fryer Jr., a UT Arlington graduate, was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported. Fryer is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is the youngest African American to be awarded tenure at Harvard. A magna cum laude graduate of The University of Texas at Arlington, Professor Fryer holds a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.

Great Minds in STEM announced a partnership with the STEM Community Council of Arlington in a citywide celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math this week, WVUE Fox 8 in New Orleans, WUPV 12 in Richmond, Va., and several other websites reported. Local STEM college students from UT Arlington and other colleges will serve as college mentors, guiding student teams through various challenges posed to them throughout an engineering and science design process.

Robert Taylor, professor in practice at UT Arlington’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, will make a presentation on structural component design optimization at the 2015 Americas Altair Technology Conference in Dearborn, Mich., Engineering.com and many other websites reported. He will demonstrate how additive manufacturing removes many of the constraints on product design, including weight.

José Ángel Gutiérrez, a UT Arlington political science professor, will speak at the Tejano Civil Rights Museum during a Chicano Symposium, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported. Gutiérrez co-founded La Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Higher Education News and Trends

The Texas Senate took aim at rapidly rising college tuition rates in Texas on Thursday, approving a bill that would require institutions to meet certain performance targets before they can increase tuition beyond the rate of inflation, The Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle reported. The bill sets 11 performance targets for schools that want to raise rates beyond the rate of inflation. Institutions would have to meet a majority of those targets, which would measure performance in such areas as graduation rates, administrative costs and number of degrees awarded to at-risk students.